Some special recipes for Diwali

With winter being so dark and so cold…I think the timing of this festival couldn’t be better. Celebrated between October and mid-November, this most popular of Hindu festivals symbolises the spiritual victory of ‘light over darkness, good over evil.’

People celebrating will adorn their homes with lanterns, beautiful candles and lots of fairy lights, not too dissimilar to Christmas really. Like any other festival, Diwali is centred around the giving of gifts, family and of course FOOD. I know that at the moment, many people who are celebrating cannot be with their extended families, so they are cooking for less but that doesn’t mean that you cannot push the boat out and make something special.

So, I have written two recipes for you, one is very traditional and the other is a bit ‘East meets West’ but both equally delicious.

The first recipe is for a chai (which means tea in Hindi/Urdu), I love a sweet chai. However, this is not just ordinary chai, this is my celebratory cinnamon chai latte, topped in whipped cream and a dusted in cinnamon powder. This sweet fragrant milky chai delivers everything it promises; a wonderfully warm comforting feeling on the inside and a whipped cream moustache on the outside!

OK you have made your chai, so you need an authentic Asian sweet to go with it – JALEBI. This Indian sweetmeat is a golden orange crunchy lattice, soaked in sweet cardamom syrup. I have only just learnt to make it and I have to say, I was surprised how easy it actually was. You may be thinking, well that’s ok for her - as she cooks for a living. Well I do, but I am not a specialist in making Asian sweetmeats as this is usually done by an expert called a ‘Halwai’ similar to a pastry chef in the west.

If you’ve never eaten Jalebi, the only way I can describe it, is that it is a little like churros or French pudding rum baba but without the rum. Apart from those two examples, I was wracking my brains to find a similar sweet treat and I couldn’t. That’s probably due to the fact that many South Asian and Middle Eastern sweetmeats are usually made using flavours like, saffron, cardamom, and rose water etc.

Another idiosyncrasy of Indian sweetmeats is that they are often soaked in a sugar syrup. This is not so popular in the west but things are beginning to change. Back in the day, the only ethnic sweets we had was ‘Turkish Delight’ and yes due to the rosewater, you could smell it at 50 paces. However, food trends are changing and the western palate is becoming more accustomed to these eastern flavours and sweetmeats like baklava have paved the way nicely - thank you very much. So if you, like me love jalebi or baklava, then try this recipe and during the dark winter months, light up your life during the festival of light!

CINNAMON CHAI LATTE

Cooking Time: 10 mins

Makes 4 cups approx

Ingredients

2 English breakfast tea bags

700 ml milk

300 ml water

5 cardamom pods

1 to 2 tsp cinnamon

2 to 3 tablespoons sugar (optional)

Method

1. In a large saucepan, add the tea bags, milk, water, sugar, cinnamon and cardamom (split the pods in half, allowing the flavour to infuse into the tea). Then, stir with a tablespoon and bring to the boil.

2. Now turn the heat to low and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes. Stir every now and again and keep an eye on the tea in case the milk boils over. Traditional chai is made using this method.

3. Using a fine metal tea strainer, pour tea into a teapot. Serve in tea cups or chai glasses.

4. Swirl with whipped cream and dust with cinnamon powder

TIP: You can make this chai with coconut, oat or Almond milk

JALEBI

Ingredients

 1 cup plain flour (150g)

 4 tbsp yoghurt

 2 tbsp cornflour

 ¼ tsp baking powder

 ¼ tsp orange food colour 

 150ml water or as needed

 oil to fry jalebi (750ml or 1 litre)

Sugar syrup

 1 cup white sugar

 2 tsp lemon juice

 ½ cup water

 5 cardamom pods or ¼ tsp cardamom powder

 few saffron strands (optional)

To decorate

 crushed pistachio

 edible gold glitter or gold leaf

Method

In a pan add sugar, water, lemon juice and cardamom pods (and saffron if using). Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 mins till you have a syrup like consistency. To test, take a spoon of syrup and let it drip into the saucepan - it should flow off the spoon and end up forming a single thread. Remember the syrup will thicken up as it rests. Set aside while you make the batter.

1. In a large bowl add the flour, baking powder, cornflour, yoghurt, cardamom and food colouring. Add 150ml water and mix into a smooth batter. Cover the batter and set aside for 10 mins to ferment.

2. Heat oil in a non-stick frying pan and transfer the jalebi batter into a squeezy bottle.

3. To test for the right temperature, add a few drops of batter and bits should float to the top within a couple of seconds. If the batter splits, the oil is too hot and if it sinks to the bottom it is too cold.

4. Now hold the bottle directly above the oil and make the jalebi by squeezing the bottle in a spiral motion. Fry for 1 to 2 mins on each side. Remove from oil and immediately dip in the warm sugar syrup for a minute or so.

5. Remove jalebis from the sugar syrup and transfer to a serving plate. Sprinkle with crushed pistachio and enjoy!

For extra tips, watch the video on Parveen’s Instragram

Happy Cooking everyone and stay safe.